Entry to Canada with previous Drink Driving conviction.

JJ1909

I was wondering has anybody been refused entry to Canada for a holiday with an Irish drink driving conviction . I have been reading online that its taken very seriously and could deem you inadmissible .
I have been there since the conviction and been allowed to enter twice in fact as i left Canada and went into the States and re entered Canada. I was not aware at the time that it was considered a criminal conviction thus declaring i had not any .
Now im going yet again with the knowledge that it is and it is doing my head in . I have applied for an eTa and was approved .im just wondering would it be prudent to say nothing at customs

fergusb

I could be wrong, but I believe it would not be an issue entering Canada as a tourist on a tourist Visa, for that I would not mention unless you are specifically asked.

If you are applying for a work permit, then you would have to mention it and it could exempt you from getting a work permit, you would have to provide a Garda cert anyway which would highlight it.

circular flexing

JJ1909 wrote: »

I was wondering has anybody been refused entry to Canada for a holiday with an Irish drink driving conviction . I have been reading online that its taken very seriously and could deem you inadmissible .
I have been there since the conviction and been allowed to enter twice in fact as i left Canada and went into the States and re entered Canada. I was not aware at the time that it was considered a criminal conviction thus declaring i had not any .
Now im going yet again with the knowledge that it is and it is doing my head in . I have applied for an eTa and was approved .im just wondering would it be prudent to say nothing at customs

Did you declare the conviction when applying for the eTA?

Also contrary to what fergusb said, it could be an issue even entering as a visitor.

JJ1909

No i didnt as i was still under the illusion i had no criminal conviction .Someone said something to me so i researched it which brings me to here .

As i said i have been entered Canada twice since it happened and the States for that matter with no issues

Pkiernan

If you declare it you will be refused admission, even for a holiday.

circular flexing

JJ1909 wrote: »

No i didnt as i was still under the illusion i had no criminal conviction .Someone said something to me so i researched it which brings me to here .

As i said i have been entered Canada twice since it happened and the States for that matter with no issues

Well now you've just misrepresented yourself to the Canadian immigration authorities. You said yourself above that you have a drink driving conviction so I don't know why you would think you don't have one for the purpose of the eTA.

To be honest, it matters little that you have been there since. The US don't care as much about drink driving convictions as Canadians do. It's one thing to not volunteer the information when asked but to declare that you don't have a conviction when you actually do is pretty serious, imo.

JJ1909

when i applied for the eTa i was still ignorant to the Canadian policy and was genuine in my application albeit wrong ..

jaymcg91

JJ1909 wrote: »

when i applied for the eTa i was still ignorant to the Canadian policy and was genuine in my application albeit wrong ..

They won't accept that. It's your responsibility to know the details of your own criminal convictions and whether it'd be relevant to declare them.

JJ1909

I know, as it happens holiday has been cancelled .